king’s vegetarian review

April 4, 2018

If you are vegan or newly vegan you have probably learned by now that ordering take-out or delivery can be pretty difficult. You don’t know whether something may contain an animal product or not and without having a server right at your table it can be difficult to find out and we don’t know about you but sometimes we just don’t want to have to try and explain what we can and can’t eat over the phone. Thankfully we’re lucky enough to live in Toronto (well at least Kat is).

In Toronto we have a lot of amazing vegan restaurants, but one of our favourites is King’s Cafe. We have always loved Chinese take-out, since we were both kids and sometimes it can be difficult to find vegan options are your previous favourites. Even if they have options, they normally don’t have a wide variety of options. This is where King’s Cafe comes in handy.

King’s Vegetarian Food is a company that started with a restaurant called King’s Cafe in Toronto’s Kensington Market area nearly 20 years ago. Since they have grown to numerous locations across Ontario under the name Zen Gardens and a full range of delicious retail products. King’s Vegetarian is consistently a fan favourite. They also make the absolute best vegan bacon you will ever have.

Inspired by our take-out recipe series (where we made Sesame Tofu, Vegan Chow Mein, and Fried Rice) we ordered A LOT of delicious food from their Kensington restaurant to review. We also opted to buy a couple of their retail products to test out.

Wonton Soup

Can you even start your Chinese take-out meal without a delicious soup? Of course not. A steaming bowl of delicious vegetable broth, their soup is loaded with wontons. It is the perfect balance of flavours while garnished with carrots, mushrooms and finely chopped sheets of bean-curd. You honestly would have no idea that this soup was vegan and we probably could have eaten this soup as our entire meal.

Veggie Duck with Plum Sauce

Definitely one of our favourite things we ordered because it was an amazing texture and was packed full of flavour. We will be honest, we don’t know what actual duck is supposed to taste like, but that doesn’t matter. We know this is delicious, whether it tastes like actual duck or not. As soon as you bite into the perfectly crispy gluten, you get that powerful sour flavour from the plum sauce. Just the smell is enough to send growls through your stomach.

Fried Noodles with Soy Sauce

These lightly fried chow mein noodles complete with seitan, bell peppers, and other delicious vegetables all fried in everyone’s favourite sauce; soy sauce. We fell in love wit these noodles. The simplicity, but layers and layers of flavour. Seriously this dish tasted identical to what we remember it tasting like before going vegan. What surprised us most, was how much the seitan tasted like the barbecue pork found in most chow mein noodles. Seriously addicted to it.

Schezuan Style Spicy Tofu

Probably our least liked of everything we got, however that is not to say it still ins’t delicious. We absolutely loved the spice of this dish, if paired with a delicious sweet coconut sticky rice it would have been absolutely delicious. PS. This dis comes in A LOT of sauce, which we think is a bonus because then you can use it on ALL your rice.

Double Happiness

This is one of the two frozen retail options we purchased. Initially we were upset because after opening it we realized it did not come with a sauce. This was disappointing as it was not necessarily “cheap”. However upon tasting it we realized just how good it was, even without any sauce. The texture is incredible (you seriously cannot tell it is vegan at all) and the flavouring is seriously perfect. Enjoy this in a good stir fry with a delicious teriyaki or sesame sauce and you are in vegan Chinese food heaven.

Vegan Soy Leg

Do you miss chicken but hate the thought of killing poor innocent chickens because of it? Well you’re in luck. These vegan soy legs, not only look like chicken, but the texture and flavour is pretty damn spot on too. While obviously not perfect, this is sure to satisfy any pesky chicken cravings, without the cruelty. We quickly air-fired these which made for the perfectly crispy “skin”. Yep, these had a vegan skin. Seriously we are in shock.